Happy birthday Steven. Hope it was a great one.

Nice to see you post Don - hope you are well!

Thank you my friends.

Donny buddy ya let the cat out of the bag. I like to keep my birthdays low key ha ha! Tony time is flying here in Florida and before l know it we’ll be back. Gary hope to catch on the ride back. Don Mason good to see you posting and hope you’re feeling better.

My wife and I had a great day in Florida today, started the day with 14 mile round golf cart ride at the Villages(a major way to get around here) to one of the town squares for coffee, cappuccino and a light breakfast. Headed back to our rental and spent a few hours at the pool, it hit 80 degrees here. We wound up for dinner at an Italian restaurant called Red Sauce for antipasto, pasta with rabe and sausage, pasta Bolognese, cannoli for dessert with espresso. Great day to say the least! This 55+ community The Villages is like DisneyWorld for seniors. We’re not golfers but there is free golf for residents here and over 600 holes of golf. There’s lots of activity and got myself a weekly piano solo gig working the lobby of believe it or not a place called Florida Cancer Center. The management has pianists playing at various times to bring some cheer to those who have some serious health problems.

No one is from Florida either we’ve met more people from New England, New York and New Jersey more than anywhere else

Wish I had known what you were having for dinner ... I might have jetted down there to join you ...
Glad you had a great day ...

I know that dinner was your style too, we would have been glad to have you and Lydia in our company.

One thing very relevant to this forum I left out. Across the street from the restaurant is the one of the outdoor town squares. They have entertainment nightly from 5 to 9 PM. Have to say the guy that played tonight worked his butt off. He was a guitarist who played using backing tracks. Most of the time he sang to the backing tracks and left the guitar on a guitar stand. He earned every penny he was being paid and he was using a thick binder with paper lead sheets. What surprised me a bit was the downtime between his songs. No matter what he did a nice job.

Happ Birthday. Aren't you too young for the Villages ?

I wish I were too young for the Villages I turned 67 today. Bill ya made my day I’ll take the compliment

Hey Steve.....
Really glad you and Deb are enjoying your Villages stay. I hear there is a wealth of musicians, entertainers and musical events in the Villages...so much so,according to buddy who looked into moving there said,, there was no money to be made. Lots of work, on the cheap or gratis. Can you confirm? We have a fair amount of retired big band players here and in St. Petersburg....Those that want to play can usually find a community band...but they do it for love of doing it.
Eddie

Eddie,

I believe your friend is right, seems with all the organized music clubs and the number of nights of entertainment musicians are a dime a dozen as they say. With 3 town squares and music on each of them every night of the week can’t see how they could be paying top dollar.

Happy (belated) Bday Steve! You are a young 67? Welcome to the "(Not so) old Man's Club"... you're still a spring chicken! Enjoy the fun, food, and entertainment over there!